Rivers a source of rising tension between Pakistan and India
Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources
A 1960 trans-boundary water sharing agreement between India and Pakistan has stood the test of two wars and various periods of unease. Climate change, however, may prove the toughest test of the Indus River deal, observers say. The two rival South Asian nations share the 190 billion cubic meters of Himalayan snowmelt that course through the Indus each year. The river originates from India's Himalayan Hindu Kush mountains and flows through Jammu and Kashmir and then through Pakistan to reach the Arabian Sea. But experts say that climate change could alter the timing and rate of snow melt, with an initial increase in annual runoff followed eventually by a steep decrease that will severely curb river flows. That could provoke conflict between the two nations, particularly as India develops dams along the upper riches of the Indus, raising questions in Pakistan over whether falling water availability is due to climate change or to India's reservoirs.
Manipadma Jena is a Reuters AlertNet correspondent and freelance development journalist based in Bhubaneswar, India
Source: Reuters AlertNet
Image source: stevehicks
Read more »Posted on 29/04/10
Turning swords into ploughshares: Environmental degradation and water poverty are reaching a tipping point after which serious instability and suffering will be unavoidable
Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources, Marginalisation
Good news does not sell newspapers. Nor, it seems, does the idea of respect for human dignity. In West Asia, where the majority of people have known little other than outright war or simmering conflict, it should come as little surprise that people have lost their faith in the possibility of real peace. Real peace can be a frightening prospect; it means burying the hatchet and beating swords into the proverbial ploughshares. No easy task when we are all burdened by historical and psychological baggage.
Source: www.gulfnews.com
Image source: Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
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Posted on 22/04/10
Influential European Figures Issue Unprecedented Statement on Nuclear Dangers
Issue:Global militarisation
Reported on the website of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians For Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation, 41 senior European statesmen and women recently signed an unprecedented European statement highlighting the world’s growing nuclear dangers and calling for greater international efforts to address them. Representing a range of political persuasions, this is a non-partisan scaling up of the European political presence in the international nuclear debate. It also signals the formation of a new European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, designed to allow ongoing and coordinated European interventions on crucial nuclear issues.
Source: Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians For Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation
Image source: BlatantNews.com
Read more »Posted on 22/04/10
Defense Department Reports Project Mixed Impressions of Climate Threats
Issue:Climate change
The 2010 Joint Operating Environment report, recently released by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, rightly recognizes climate change as one of 10 trends “most likely to impact the Joint Force” writes Laura Conley.
Read more »Posted on 8/04/10
![](/sites/default/files/imagecache/teaser_image/Paul%20Rogers_0_0_0.jpg "Beyond "liddism": towards real global security")
Beyond "liddism": towards real global security
Issue:Global militarisation
A decade of pitiless wars and brutal inequalities has made the arguments of the book “Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century” - first published before 9/11, and now in its third edition - more relevant than ever. In his 450th column for openDemocracy, Paul Rogers looks back and forward.
Read more »Posted on 6/04/10
Afghanistan: victory talk, regional tide
Issue:Global militarisation
A seductive narrative of military progress in Afghanistan is spreading among United States analysts. The real story is more complicated.
Photo source: The U.S. Army
Read more »Posted on 30/03/10
